MY MOVIE SHELF: True Grit

 

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 14 Days to go: 12

Movie #426:  True Grit

This movie is spectacular. I’ve never seen the John Wayne original, but I can’t imagine it holds a candle to the crisp filmmaking of the Coen Brothers and the sensational performances of Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn, Matt Damon as Mr. LaBoeuf and especially Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross. (I would’ve given her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in a heartbeat.)

The story is narrated by the grown Mattie (Elizabeth Marvel), recounting the time when she was fourteen and her father was killed by the villain Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). He had been away from home on an errand, so Mattie travels to have his body sent back and to capture the criminal herself, since no one else there will care enough to.

The title comes from Mattie’s declaration to Rooster that she has chosen to hire him — a U.S. Marshall — to track down Chaney because she’s heard he has “true grit,” but it’s Mattie who has grit, as she demonstrates over and over. She’s clever, strong-willed and formidable. She has a keen mind for business and law and she takes pains not to trifle with silliness, but she’s not without soul or spirit. She can outsmart a grown man on financial negotiations one minute and cheerily reminisce about the time her father took her on a coon hunt the next. She won’t give up her quest to find Chaney, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t delight in telling ghost stories around the campfire. She’s resolute, but she is open to new opinions and admits when she’s misjudged people, and she gains the respect of nearly all that she encounters, kind of by the sheer force of her will, including notorious criminal Lucky Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper), who they find Chaney riding with. She feels fear, anger, sadness and deep affection over the course of her journey with the Marshall and the Texas Ranger LaBoeuf and proves herself to be a deep and richly drawn character, who, despite being so young, carries the whole film.

There’s something to be said, too, for the way Rooster and LaBoeuf are also changed by Mattie, both in their relationship with each other and their feelings toward her. They are truly comrades on this quest, working together and coming to respect and appreciate one another in a way only people who have shared a great trial can. All have flaws — and the dialogue snaps with crackling insults and banter as they pick at each other — and all have strengths, and out of these characters flows the story.

I’ve never really considered myself a fan of westerns, but True Grit is the clear exception. The ride is harrowing, the stakes are high, and the action is compelling. Even the largely unlikable broad strokes of the characters (Rooster is gruff, LaBoeuf is arrogant and Mattie herself is stubborn) are made sympathetic by their words and deeds, each one coming to the assistance of the others, and proving there is more to them than their outward appearance. The film is stark and unforgiving, as traditional westerns are, but it is full of heart and courage and perseverance, and I absolutely love it. (I’ve already seen it more times than I can count.)

MY MOVIE SHELF: The Green Mile

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 244 Days to go: 248

Movie #133: The Green Mile

The Green Mile, for me, kind of crystallizes the best tendencies of Stephen King. The story contains elements of the mystical, of justice borne from man and from a higher power, and of proper punishment being meted out one way or another. It’s about a mysterious giant of a man named John Coffey — “just like the drink, only not spelled the same” — played by a dearly departed giant of a man named Michael Clarke Duncan, and the time he spends on death row (the titular “Green Mile”) for the rape and murder of two young girls.

Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) is the narrator of this story, relating it to his friend in a retirement home in the present. He tells how he was the head guard on death row of Cold Mountain Penitentiary, Louisiana back in 1935, when John Coffey came to stay. He tells of John’s sweet submissiveness, his meekness, of how he’s afraid of the dark. He tells of a spiteful and petulant guard named Percy (Doug Hutchison) — with ties to the governor, he always throws his weight around and is likely only working this job for the repugnant pleasure of watching a man die up close — who has a particular grudge against inmate Eduard Delacroix (Michael Jeter). He tells of a violent, calculating and remorseless criminal named “Wild” Bill Wharton (Sam Rockwell) who came to stay on the mile as well, and who has an untold history of his own. He tells the story of the warden’s (James Cromwell) wife (Patricia Clarkson), who is dying of a brain tumor but is miraculously healed. He tells the story of a marvelous little mouse.

John Coffey is a simple but miraculous man. If someone is ailing, he can “help it.” If something happens to hurt someone, he can “take it back.” He heals Paul’s bladder infection when it’s so advanced Paul can barely stand. He draws in the negative energy and coughs it up into the atmosphere. He heals the mouse when Percy steps on it out of spite for Delacroix, who was keeping it as a pet. And one night the crew takes him out of the prison to heal the warden’s sweet wife. But things don’t go as expected that night, and the evening ends with both Percy and Wild Bill being justly punished for the things they’ve done.

Duncan was a big man in his own right, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I spend most of the movie wondering how they made John Coffey so huge compared to everyone else. I have to assume he was always on a platform of some sort, six inches tall or more. I also can’t watch this film without thinking Sam Rockwell is one of the greatest character actors of our time. (“Why should we give you any?” “‘Cause I’ve got a big pecker.”) He’s so evil, so foul and so coldly unrepentant in this film it’s honestly unsettling.

Tom Hanks is also good, as always (as are David Morse and Barry Pepper as guards “Brutal” and Dean), bringing real sincerity and weight to the moral dilemma of killing a man who has such a miraculous gift, but it’s not really one of his stand-out roles. Back when the movie came out I was working in the payroll department of a national company, and since we often had overnight deliveries to make, we interacted with the guys from the mail room several times a week. One of those mail room guys bet me twenty dollars Tom Hanks would get yet another Oscar nomination for this role (back then it certainly felt like he got one every year, but that wasn’t quite true), and I assured him it would never happen — it just wasn’t the right role, wasn’t the right performance. Understanding the peculiarities of the Academy can be tricky, but I’d been doing it enough I felt confident in my stance. I was right, of course, but that guy had left the company by then. So if you’re out there, John from the mail room, you still owe me $20.

What I really love about The Green Mile is how easy and deliberate it is. It tells a story as calm and collected as Paul and his guards, with a handful of tense sequences to make your heart race. I love how it treats its prisoners as people, how that’s the philosophy of the guards on the Mile. And I admit I like a story where the antagonists get what’s coming to them.

I also appreciate how things end for John Coffey, because as good as he is, as miraculous as he is, those things can’t survive in this world for long.  So it’s best to appreciate them and be grateful for them while they’re here.